Family vs Famiglia
by autumnassassin
Summary: Gabriela Ciprani is just a secretary for the Vongola Famiglia, not even a main secretary even, just one of the under-under secretaries. She lets people in and does her job quietly. But the Decimo looks tired and Gabriela is tired of everyone bursting in and bothering him more.


Well. Hi? I'm not dead? Sometimes I surprise myself honestly. France was amazing btw's. But, I wrote this and haven't wanted to post it because it wasn't 'perfect', but then this semester, one of my classes is Creative Writing and we have to post a new piece of work every week. Let's just say that's working on curbing my fear of posting things. So I figured, what the heck. I don't plan on turning this into more than just this one-shot.

This can from after reading someone's story (I cannot remember the name for the life of me. All I've got in my head is Brisez which is French for break, but I'm not sure if that is meant literally or in some other way.) where Tsuna refuses to be Decimo and almost, almost manages it, but then the Ninth and Iemitsu force him to take the mantle again. And so this is why the question becomes so important. If I ever find that fic again, I'll let ya'll know what it's called.

But, enough rambling. Enjoy!

* * *

Gabriela stared in confusion at the man in front of her. She had never really met him before, but that was hardly surprising, she just checked that people signed into the register before they moved on. Right now, she was currently in the middle of her first bi-annual interview with the Vongola family, and she wanted to give a good appearance.

However, Matteo's last question was giving her some trouble.

"I don't understand the question. Tsuna or Decimo?" she repeated back to him nervously.

The man nodded calmly, not looking the least bit perturbed that she hadn't answered as quickly as she had the other ones.

Allowing a moment of nerves to show as she brought her thumb up to her mouth to bite on the nail, she stared hard at the desk in front of her.

Finally though, she looked up at him, "There's some sort of test in that question, the problem is, I'm not sure what type of test it is. I haven't been here long, so I don't want to answer it incorrectly. Could I say pass for now?"

The man tilted his head a bit, then gave a nod, a surprised look on his face, "Sure no problem. That sort of question will always be on the interview until you give a final answer, then it pops up every 5 years."

Gabriela gave him a look, tilting her head a bit, but finally gave a nod, "Alright, thank you."

"No thank you. I'm glad we were able to have a pleasant discussion," he said with a smile, writing down a couple of things on the papers in front of him before shuffling them and stapling them before placing it to the side, "Could you send in the next person please?"

Gabriela gave a nod then rose and headed outside, not giving him another glance as she continued on her with her work.

* * *

Now Gabriela Ciprani wasn't a big fancy person in the Vongola, she wasn't important in the grand scheme of things, but she liked to think that what she did was important.

The day before had been hectic and that was the only reason Gabriela could find for what she was about to do. This was the tenth random person to storm in and about to storm in on the Decimo, and Gabriela had had enough.

"The Decimo is busy right now." She said in a flat voice, fingers not even twitching to the unlocking button.

The man gave a small growl in his throat, flames rising behind him, but Gabriela barely even gave him a glance as she continued typing. She was the under-under-under-secretary, the very first layer of secretaries for the Decimo, so she sorted through the most base of emails and requests, sending up the higher ones for the under-under-secretary to deal with, who dealt with the next level, etc. This way the Decimo's actual secretary only dealt with the most important things for when scheduling for him. The problem was all these random people who would pop up and demand to see the Decimo under the claim that it was urgent.

Gabriela was supposed to just let them through without question, so that way a higher security level could see if it was actually important or no, but she had gone through the same training as all the other secretaries, as all the other Mafioso.

And whatever this man had wasn't urgent. He wasn't sweating nearly enough for it to be important.

"It's urgent."

"Sorry. The Decimo is busy right now," she repeated blandly.

He slammed his palms on the desk, "And what could be more important than the news I have to bring him."

Gabriela stared at him, internally answering, 'taking a five minute break', but outwardly sticking with, "He's a busy man. He has a lot of meetings. If you want, I can set up an appointment for you. Or, you could find someone else to address this issue to."

There was a moment where the man stared at her, but Gabriela wasn't going to move. The Decimo had looked exhausted yesterday, he didn't need another random fool who didn't know how to just deal with it himself or to find someone closer in rank to deal with it. He had no reason to go to the Decimo.

Gabriela watched as he left, lightening crackling in his footsteps, but she simply sniffed. She worked in the Vongola mansion, his flames had nothing on the Bovino's.

* * *

Gabriela often thought of it as a gate being opened. Since she had told the first one no, she found it easier and easier to tell people no and to kick them off the property. There were a couple of people who she didn't dare try, even though she knew they caused the Decimo all kinds of headaches- the amount of ibuprofen bought after Xanxus visited tripled- but they could and would and had thrown people through walls before for simply standing in their way, and though she was a Cloud, she had nothing on the higher echelons.

But others, like the leader of the small Amoretto family, she took the route she did now, "The Decimo is busy right now. If you wish, we can set up an appointment and you can speak then."

"Listen here secretary, we need to speak to the Decimo, so open the door," the leaders Storm spoke, slamming his fist down on her desk.

"And as I said, he is busy. I can make an appointment for you, but you can't see him right now."

His face darkened, then he leaned in close, "Listen to me carefully. You may be working for Vongola, but you are just a secretary, no one's going to notice your disappearance, so open the door."

Gabriela didn't even blink in the face of the threat, just stared back at him.

She wasn't really sure what to do with this, no one had ever bothered to threaten her before. She didn't have enough power to really do anything, she should just open the door, but as soon as she did that, word would get around that all you had to do was threaten her to get inside.

The thing was, since he had so easily delved into threatening, Gabriela really didn't want him anywhere near the Decimo.

"Is there a problem here?" a voice clear of any emotion cut through the tension and they all glanced over to see the Cavallone leader entering into the mansion.

The storm backed away from her desk in a hurry, but not before shooting her one last glare, "Not at all Cavallone, we were just attempting to visit the Decimo, but this secretary refuses to let us in."

Gabriela refused to feel cowed as the Cavallone turned his gaze to her, "The Decimo is busy, he doesn't have time for anyone to just waltz in."

"I should have an appointment with him at 3," was the only thing he said in response to that. Giving him a look, Gabriela went to check it and nodded at seeing the note on Decimo's calendar.

"So you do, would you like to go on ahead?" she asked, hand drifting over to the button.

But he shook his head, "I am early, I wouldn't want to bother him."

Gabriela gave him a look at that, but said nothing in return, simply settling for a sharp nod.

For five minutes, everyone waited in tense silence, the only thing breaking it was Gabriela's typing and clicking as she continued sorting through the emails. Most of the time she could get through them faster, but there was an odd tension in the air that had half of her attention on the Mafioso hanging out in front of her.

At exactly 3 o'clock, the Cavallone boss stood up fluidly, his Guardians a step behind him as he walked to the door. Silently, she hit the button for him and he gave her a nod and smile in thanks.

The group travelled through, shutting the door behind them and Gabriela continued with her work. The Amoretto family was still there, but seemed to be in shock.

She could deal with that.

* * *

She could just feel the flames flare as the second in command of the Varia stomped towards the front door. Panicking on the inside, Gabriela checked the schedule to see that no, he had no meeting with the Decimo.

Preparing herself to die, and not even really exaggerating, she kept on typing even as he slammed the door open and stalked towards the next one.

Usually, she had it open before he even walked in, but she didn't move a muscle towards the button, even as his short temper got even shorter.

"VOI! Why is the door not open?" he yelled at her, stalking over to the desk and slamming his hands down on it. Distractedly, she noticed that the cracks were getting to be a bit large. She might need to get a new desk soon.

"The Decimo is busy right now, sorry. If you need to see him I can make an appointment for you."

It was almost comical how his mouth moved up and down without sound, "Bus….? BUSY? HE SHOULD MAKE TIME FOR ME!"

"I'm sorry sir, are you dating him?" the words slipped out before she could take them back, but was rewarded by the best look on Superbi's face as he turned all sorts of colours.

"NO!"

"Then you can make an appointment and wait like everyone else." And with that she went back to typing.

The silence was deafening, and without another word, he stalked back outside, slamming the door shut behind him.

* * *

"Matteo." She greeted, walking in and shutting the door behind her.

"Ah, Gabriela! It's nice to see you again, how have you been settling in? Not too crazy for you?" he asked.

Gabriela shook her head, "No, everything is fine."

"Good, good, let's get on with the interview then, shall we?"

The interview passed quickly and the last question was posed, "Tsuna or Decimo?"

Here she paused, just like last time and thought about the question, "What do you say?" she asked warily.

He gave her a cheeky smile, "Ah, it's your interview, not mine."

Gabriela gave a shrug in response, "Worth a shot. I'm still not quite sure honestly."

"Really?" Matteo asked in surprise.

"The thing is, I've never met the Decimo. I mean, I've heard about him of course, but I've never met him." Gabriela finally answered.

Matteo paused a moment then gave her a considering look.

"Alright. I'll note that. Thank you for your honesty." Matteo finally said.

* * *

The head of the CEDEF stormed towards the door, completely intent on just breaking through it, he was muttering under his breath and for a moment she thought it was a legitimate emergency, until she heard the words under his breath.

Gabriela stood up furious as the CEDEF leader started towards the door. The Decimo was exhausted, barely over his cold and this man was just going to make it worse.

Her flames filled the room, making it hard to breathe for the CEDEF's minions, although the head himself just paused and looked at her.

"I don't care who you are, the Decimo is busy." she said in a low voice.

"You're trying to bring me under? I'm a Sky, little cloud," he sneered, turning away from her and utterly dismissing her.

Sneering back, she twisted her flames to fill the doorway, reinforcing it as she repeated, "The Decimo is busy. If you want to see him, make an appointment."

"I'm the Head of the CEDEF, I can see the Decimo whenever I want." He shot back, turning to look down on her.

Gabriela lifted her chin in response, "The first thing you said when you came in was 'time to see my little Tune-fish'. You aren't here for the Decimo, you're here for your 'Tuna-fish'. Well, the Decimo is busy, he has no time to play at being your 'Tuna-fish'." She said firmly, doing her best to keep the mocking tone out, but not really succeeding by the looks of it.

Suddenly his sky flames filled the room, making his minions stand up straighter even as Gabriela staggered backwards.

"Now. Open the door."

The commanding tone had Gabriela automatically reaching towards the button, until the image of an exhausted Tsuna flashed through her mind and she straightened up, clasping her hands behind her back.

"Make an appointment or get out." She said instead, the door still with the purple tint on it.

He gaped at her, but Gabriela didn't move. His flames increased even more, but Gabriela gripped her hands tighter, tighter, enough to feel her nails break skin.

But she didn't move.

Finally, _finally_ , he turned and stalked out.

She waited until all of them were gone before she collapsed into the chair, her heart beating much too fast as she examined her trembling hands. There were little rivulets of blood on her hand, but that was the only outward indication of what had just happened.

With no warning, Matteo slammed open the small side door that all the hired used. He was followed by three other men, all armed and ready.

"What just happened here?" Matteo asked, gun in hand up and ready.

Gabriela looked up at him wide-eyed and all she could say was, "I told him no?"

Matteo gave her a concerned look, the others beginning to look around for the danger.

"Told who no?" Matteo asked, cautiously holstering the gun. He walked over to her and knelt down to her eye level.

"The head of the CEDEF." She answered, looking at him in concern, "Is he supposed to be so…pushy?"

Matteo looked at her in alarm, then at the other three in the room who also looked surprised.

"I have no idea, I've never had a conversation with him."

Gabriela took a breath in then let it out before reaching over and locking the front door. Matteo looked at her in alarm and said, "Gabriela, the front door always stays unlocked."

She shook her head once, "Not today. Today the Decimo will have no visitors."

She said it with such finality that Matteo and the others could only nod in agreement.

Ignoring them then, she turned back to her computer, taking a couple shuddering breaths as she flexed her fingers over the keyboard, the screen swimming in front of her. But she took one more deep breath, allowing herself a moment of weakness, before she shoved it to the back of her mind, rolling her neck and getting back to work, Matteo hesitating by her desk.

Looking up at the older man, she gave a small smile, "Don't worry about me. He was just irritated, he didn't actually do anything."

Matteo hesitated a little longer, the other guards that he had brought with him hesitating along with him, but Gabriela simply shook her head with the smile still on her face.

"Go on. I know you have other duties."

At that, he let out a sigh, then gave a nod, leading the other guards back through the side door.

The last one turned to give her a small salute, grinning at her and Gabriela just gave a small shrug in reply with a small wry smile.

For the rest of the morning, she ignored whoever knocked on the door, going through emails viciously. She took great pleasure in just deleting the ones from CEDEF that just complained about her behavior to his Tuna-fish. If he wanted to deal with it, he could call the Decimo. Surely he had to know that Gabriela was the one to go through his emails?

At least, the non-classified ones.

Then at her lunch break, he appeared.

"Good afternoon Miss Ciprani. The Decimo would like to see you in his office now."

Fingers freezing, Gabriela looked up to see the Decimo's right hand man standing at her desk, hands clasped behind his back. He was regarding her with a cool look and inwardly she panicked. She probably didn't hide it very well, at least to the third most powerful man in the Vongola, but she could pretend for herself at least.

With only a nervous duck of her head, she followed after him.

It was utterly silent as the Storm led her to the Decimo's office, ushering her in and shutting the door behind them.

"So Miss Ciprani." The Decimo said in a pleasant tone, "My father says you deliberately locked him out of the mansion."

"Yes sir." She said in a small whisper, staring at the floor.

"May I ask why?"

For a moment, she didn't answer, not looking up at him, but finally mumbled, "You looked so exhausted this morning, I didn't want you to have to deal with his nonsense."

There was a stunned silence before his storm started laughing.

"Hear that Tsuna? Even the staff get it!"

Gabriela shuffled, "Not all the staff. You just looked so done, and had already ordered more bottles of ibuprofen. I didn't want you collapsing."

There was another silence so Gabriela rushed to fill it with, "Then Gokudera is in charge which just leads to chaos because none of the other Guardians actually listen to him. Creates more work for us."

For a moment, Gabriela feared she had overstepped her boundaries, but then there was laughter and she dared to look up.

The Decimo was laughing, ignoring his Storms sputtering's but after a moment a small smile appeared on his face as well.

"Forget whatever my father might have told you Miss Ciprani. I trust your judgment," Tsuna smiled at Gabriela and suddenly she couldn't catch her breath as she felt the Sky flames reassure her. They weren't like Iemitsu, they weren't scorching, they were warming, they weren't harsh and reprimanding, but soothing and concerned. How could a civilian born have such good Flames?

"You can call me Gabriela," she said in a soft voice.

"Gabriela then. Thank you for all you do for the family." Tsuna said and Gabriela gave a nervous nod in response.

"Continue on," he dismissed, already looking back at his paperwork, but gave her a last goodbye smile as she walked out.

* * *

She wished she could say that life returned to normal after that, but suddenly everything seemed to be different. The Head of the CEDEF almost never came to the mansion in person, always sending one of his underlings. And always when there was an actual meeting involved. Gabriela had no idea what exactly had happened between Tsuna and his father, but apparently it had to be big enough to warrant him never coming to the mansion again. The people coming through her doors had appointments more often than not, and Squalo had once burst in, apologized between expletives, and then stalked back outside.

Gabriela had blinked at the closed door for a long time before deciding to dismiss it as a hallucination. Obviously she hadn't been drinking enough coffee.

* * *

For her next interview, Matteo wasn't available. He had taken off a couple weeks for a well-deserved vacation. So instead, her interview was being held by some woman she had never met nor seen before.

"So Miss Ciprani. Famiglia or family?" the no-nonsense woman asked with a sneer on her face, "Why this sort of question is on here I will never understand, it's useless."

And suddenly, Gabriela realized the point of the question. She kept her head down even as she clenched her fists, the woman nattering on for a moment longer.

"Family. I would say family." She interrupted, looking up at the woman with a straight look. The woman paused, looking over Gabriela carefully. Then in complete silence, she check-marked the box next to family.

"You may go Miss Ciprani," she said in a cool voice.

But Gabriela could care less. She was part of the family.


End file.
